Series: Columns

May 8, 2017

Christian Standard

5 Questions about New Ideas

By Joe Boyd Springtime always stimulates new ideas for me. But I”ve learned I should pursue only some of them.  There is something about springtime that makes all things new. Winter can be a cold and gray marathon to endure, especially for those of us on the East Coast and in the Midwest. But then comes life. Every April and May I find myself full of new ideas. And I should say that I love new ideas. They are like catnip for my soul. As a movie producer, I have no shortage of people pitching story ideas to me. Some

May 7, 2017

Christian Standard

The Third Conversion

By Jennifer Johnson It was offering time, and the father sitting in front of me handed his 3-year-old son a dollar bill. The boy happily placed the money in the basket as it passed by, and then resumed working on the important task of covering his entire bulletin with green crayon scribbles. While it was a nice moment, I distinctly remember thinking, Sure, it”s easy to give someone else”s money. But the truth is, I find it quite difficult to part with cash from Someone Else. This child doesn”t own anything; he looks to his father for everything, and dad

May 6, 2017

Christian Standard

Always Trusting God

By Jennifer Johnson Mike and Enise Grooms didn”t take high-profile, high-paying ministry jobs. After working in Cincinnati”s inner city and then in eastern Europe, the couple moved to metro Atlanta and began leading Tucker (GA) Christian Church five years ago. “Mike and Enise never owned a house or a nice car,” says Al Serhal, Enise”s brother and executive director of Hippo Valley Christian Mission, a ministry to Zimbabwe with stateside offices in Grayson, KY. “They”ve always just trusted God to provide.” During their ministry at Tucker, the Grooms could get health insurance and a modest life insurance policy for the

May 2, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Our Future: What Kind of Influence?

By Mark A. Taylor Will the Restoration Movement* stay strong if its institutions continue to struggle? The question is more than academic in a time when more than one influential ministry has disappeared or is laboring to survive. And in an era characterized by massive change on every front””technology, education, media, transportation, and economic and political norms””we are no longer shocked when one of our institutions closes its doors. Change is the order of the day. Furthermore, many of our ministries still serving could not continue with support from our fellowship alone. For example, our two national conferences, while still

April 30, 2017

Jerry Harris

Securing a Future

By Jerry Harris What”s going on with the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout? As a pastor of a church and a founding board member of The Solomon Foundation, I was interested in the answer to that question. Both magazines have been staples of the Restoration Movement from early on, and I, like many, had assumed they would always be there. When I heard in our board meeting the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout could be shut down because their owners had found no buyers for them, I was deeply troubled. The chairman of the Publishing Committee had informed Doug Crozier,

April 29, 2017

Christian Standard

Slow to Tweet

By Eddie Lowen This is no self-righteous rant about abandoning social media. But I do wonder if I””and many Christians I encounter online””have always thought through the implication of what we post. There were no newspapers, radios, or TVs. No blogs, podcasts, or social media. Sending a letter to 100 people meant scratching it out on parchment 100 times (that was a punishment when I was in elementary school). E-mail? Tweets? Voice mail? Unimaginable. In an age when no instant or mass communication tools existed, when fewer people lived on earth than in the United States today, James wrote, “Everyone should be quick to listen,

April 28, 2017

Christian Standard

Personal Dramas, Universal Issues

By LeRoy Lawson Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Atul Gawked New York: Metropolitan, 2014 The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Questto Arm an America at War A. J. Jaime Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2014 There”s a Sheep in My Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement Brian Hogan Bayside: Asteroidea Books, 2008   Atul Gawande”s Being Mortal is a book for everyone. But everyone won”t like it. It”s for everyone because it”s about dying and dying is for everyone. Everyone won”t like it because it”s about honestly accepting dying, even if you”re a doctor

April 25, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Our Future: as Evangelicals?

By Mark A. Taylor Are members of Christian churches and churches of Christ properly categorized as Evangelicals? We addressed this topic in the first year I served as editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD*, and now as I close my tenure, I wonder if anyone is still asking the question. The two who answered in 2003 wrote passionately and convincingly and came to completely opposite conclusions. William R. Baker described James DeForest Murch”s decision to boldly identify himself with the growing Evangelical movement in the 1940s and afterwards. “Not since Isaac Errett, founding editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD, had anyone from the Restoration

April 24, 2017

Christian Standard

The Best Sermon I”ve Ever Heard (22)

By Arron Chambers Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can”t forget””and maybe you won”t either. Tim Sutherland Tim Sutherland is a third-generation Christian church minister. (His father, Joe, taught at Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, for many years and his grandfather graduated from Johnson Bible College””now Johnson University””in 1921.) He was baptized at Greenwood Christian Church in Canton, Ohio, in 1970. Tim was a teaching team leader for many years at Community Christian Church, Naperville, Illinois, and is currently president and CEO of Sutherland Strategic Staffing, a pre-employment assessment service. He

April 18, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

All the Potential in an Open Book

By Mark A. Taylor Several years ago I was helping host a retreat for emerging leaders among the Christian churches and churches of Christ. One session began with the question, “What are you reading?” and every one in the circle of 25 had something different to report. These men and women were reading widely””not only books about the Bible and church leadership, but also an assortment of biography, classic literature, and fiction. It was one of several times I”ve realized the future of our movement is strong because so many young leaders in our movement are strong. This happened around

April 12, 2017

Christian Standard

Shame on Jesus

By Jim Tune Three men sat together. After ordering food, one began to open up. Men usually speak about safe topics: work, sports, family. This time the man took a risk and dropped the mask. He felt exposed. He felt shame. Genesis 2:25 describes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the fall: “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Kids and teens snicker at the verse. Later we begin to understand that we long for what Adam and Eve experienced: to be fully known and to be loved at the same

April 11, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

resurrection of Christ

Why We Celebrate

An Easter editorial on why Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ: historical testimony, witness accounts, and a call to humility. Faith is not surrendering intellect, but surrendering arrogance as we seek and find.

April 6, 2017

Christian Standard

Coming Near

By Jennifer Johnson One of the most commonly quoted verses from Eugene Peterson”s The Message Bible is John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” This metaphor for the incarnation is referenced so often because, like all good poetic language, it succinctly describes a profound truth: Jesus not only came to earth to be with us, he came to be one of us. Following Jesus means following his example and “incarnating” the gospel in our own neighborhoods. Sometimes this means tutoring children or planting a church. For Salt & Light, it meant offering opportunities to

April 6, 2017

Christian Standard

Changing the Solution for the Needy in Champaign

By Jennifer Johnson Like many organizations committed to helping people in need, Salt & Light Ministries in Champaign, IL, began by giving away food, clothing, and other items. Unlike many of those organizations, however, Salt & Light eventually changed its structure and its systems to empower people to meet their own needs””and the ministry is thriving. “For years we did the “˜free stuff” model,” says Lisa Sheltra, associate director. “In fact, we were the largest emergency food pantry in Champaign County, feeding hundreds of households each week. But we still ran out of food and had to turn people away,

April 5, 2017

Christian Standard

Feeling Spent?

By Jim Tune I encounter a lot of beat-up people. The general anxiety level in society is high, and it”s easy to feel anxious even in the best of times. Throw in financial, relational, and other stresses, and it”s easy to feel overwhelmed. Whenever I encounter beat-up people, or feel like one myself, I like to remind myself of Isaiah”s picture of Jesus: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3, English Standard Version). The image of a bruised reed and a faintly burning wick may seem strange at first.

April 4, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

My Read on a Surprising Remedy

By Mark A. Taylor Readers of a certain age can”t resist a bold, red headline that says, “Live Longer!” And when the caption below it promises “50 Proven Ways to Add Years to Your Life,” an almost-retired guy like me knows he wants to know more. You could probably guess several of the live-longer tips offered by the March 2017 AARP Bulletin: get your sleep, drink water, eat whole grains, exercise. But some of it is less intuitive: get rid of throw rugs (they cause falls), find a woman doctor (statistically their patients have better results), watch your grandkids (regular

March 31, 2017

Christian Standard

Good Funerals & Neighbors, Troubled Times

By LeRoy Lawson The Good Funeral: Death, Grief and the Community of Care Thomas G. Long and Thomas Lynch Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2013 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens First published in 1859 The Neighboring Church: Getting Better at What Jesus Said Matters Most Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016 The Good Funeral is about the importance of funerals in “getting the dead where they need to go and the living where they need to be.” Authors Thomas Long and Thomas Lynch like this maxim of Lynch”s father so well they made it the theme of

March 30, 2017

Christian Standard

The Best Sermon I”ve Ever Heard (21)

By Arron Chambers These Christian leaders tell about sermons you might like to hear too.   David Springer David Springer grew up as a preacher”s kid in Mount Vernon, Ohio, with his four siblings and parents, Ken and Mel Springer. He graduated from Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2011. He met his wife, Brittany, their freshman year at Johnson. He serves as associate minister for youth with Northside Christian Church in Georgetown, Kentucky. Brittany and David have two children, Lyla and Landry. David”s Best Sermon: The best sermon I have ever heard for youth was by Jeff Walling, director of

March 29, 2017

Christian Standard

The Church Every Generation Needs

By Jim Tune I keep coming across articles about millennials. Most of them are written by millennials (those aged 20″“35) about why they”re done with church. A recent article advised churches to start listening to millennials, to ditch vision and mission statements, to stop preaching at people, to disclose on the church”s website how every dollar is spent, and more. “Decide if millennials actually matter to you and let us know,” it concluded. “In the meantime, we”ll be over here in our sweatpants listening to podcasts.” Articles like these make some valid points. Many millennials aren”t part of a church.

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